Monday, August 26, 2013

Construction update

Progress on our new practice facility was moving right on
schedule………….until we received an inch of rain this morning……….and at this
point the rain continues to fall. Companies that move and shape dirt for a
living are use to weather challenges, and knowing we might get hit with rain
they had implemented some proactive measures to reduce the delays rain might
cause. It’s a little early for me to say for certain, but I would anticipate
losing today to weather, but expect the construction to commence tomorrow. It
won’t take them long to make up a days work. The normal schedule for our
construction crew is to work 12 hour days, taking weekends off. If production
is lost due to weather, weekends will be used to get our project back on
schedule. By the end of this week we will be able to see things taking shape.
We will be able to see where the new road is roughed in, what area the parking
will take up, and where the new range tee is located. I can’t stress enough how
dangerous it is for anyone to walk into the work area with all the heavy
equipment running around. The blind spots for the drivers on this heavy
equipment are huge, and with the dust blowing around it is easy to have
incredibly poor visibility. Please do not, at any time enter the construction
zone.

The aerification of our six sand greens was completed
successfully. These areas were also over seeded at the same time. Thank you to
members who have been so patient and understanding as we mow and water these
greens in the afternoon in and around play. If you don’t recall, we mow
aerified greens in the afternoon when they are dry as we pick up a lot less
sand. In the morning the wet turf makes the sand sticky causing a big mess,
duller blades and slowerrecovery.
Watering in mid afternoon keep the turf canopy cool and gives life giving
moisture to all the new seedlings.

This week you will see the enlarged portions of the greens
on 9, 13, 14 and 15 have the sod and the organic mat layer
removed. These areas will then have new root zone installed
and they will be prep’d for sod installation which is scheduled to happen on
Tuesday September 4th. Each of these areas will be marked G.U.R.
probably for the duration of the 2013 season. The reason the areas will be
striped of sod this week, but not sodded until next week is simply because of
the time it takes to complete the task. Remembering we still need to maintain
the golf course, and we have already lost staff who have returned to school, we
need the full week to get all these areas stripped and properly prepared for
the sod which will all be cut, transported and installed in one day by another
crew.

Some members have questioned why we don’t just allow the Poa
to take over on these greens as it seems to be performing better than the bent
stand. Under the low oxygen conditions we have been experiencing Poa actually
stands up to that better than bent. Simply put, we will always have a blended
stand of both Poa and bent on our greens. The only way to eliminate one over
the other would be to undertake a complete reconstruction program such as the
one Donalda club is currently going through. This would encompass complete
excavation of all green cavities removing the root zone right down to the sub
grade and rebuilding them from there. And, after re-establishing
the turf, many extra chemical applications and hand picking the Poa out on a
regular basis would be required. We have been removing Poa plants manually on
the 12th green (but not the collar) and even I was surprised at the
extra man power required to stay on
top of the program. Attempting this on 18 greens would be monumental and a very
costly venture. Once we get our aerification program on track we will all see
healthier bent grass.